Math classes are not the only courses that could use
a makeover! I believe all academic fields could take a valuable lesson from Dan
Meyer’s talk. Thinking back on the way that I was taught in grade school, and
even looking at the way academic material is presented today, many students are
being set up for failure. The teaching approaches used are not encouraging an
effective use of critical thinking or problem solving skills because answers
are readily supplied in some form or fashion.
For instance, Meyer acknowledged that many of the math textbooks provide
examples and formulas for solving a problem, and these examples can be ineffective
tools because it encourages “learning” through substitution instead of making
connections that will allow the material to stick.
As an undergraduate I took Euclidean geometry, which
consisted of solving proofs. I never mastered the concept of solving proofs,
even though on several occasions I would perform the proofs in front of the
class. The way the class was taught, students could resort to mere recitation
of the steps required to solve the proofs and appear knowledgeable of the
material. This way of teaching obviously proved ineffective. I honestly believe
had the professor engaged in Dan Meyer’s concept of patient problem solving,
getting students involved in the formulation of the proof instead of just
providing us with the steps to solve the problem, we would have been more engaged in learning
how to understand the proofs and we might have retained more of the
information.
The Marshmallow Challenge video was interesting
because I have never heard of such a thing, but it had several relevant connections
to that of problem solving. In the video, Tom noted that kindergarteners did
better at constructing a design than most business students because business
students are “trained to find the single right plan.” Pretz et al (2003)
expressed that “multiple revisions of the problem representation may be necessary
in order to find a path to a solution” (p. 4) and this resembled the
kindergartens’ method of execution with their use of building different
prototypes. Another relevant connection was the influence of social context in
problem solving. When working together with others, each person will approach a
problem differently based on their unique knowledge base. This could explain
why certain groups (e.g. engineers and kindergarteners) were more successful
than others (lawyers and business students) at building the design.
I like how you brought up why kindergarteners probably do better at completing the Marshmallow challenge, based on the idea that revising a problem helps to find the solution. I wonder at what point between Kindergarten and college, students stop trying out multiple ways to solve a problem and stress about finding the solution right away.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. One idea that came to mind is that as individuals get older they become more conscious of time, which to some extent can serve as a hindrance.They began to approach situations with a mind set of what will be the quickest solution and fail to remember the importance of trial and error.
DeleteThat's true, and especially with the amount of timed tests kids are used to now, that could have an effect.
DeleteI like how you discussed the social context of the Marshmellow video and how certain groups did better than others because I also thought that was an important part. I first thought creativity could have played a part, but I think you are right that we all bring in knowledge from our unique previous experiences. When we have similar experiences with others (business students), we tend to conform our similar ways of thinking by thinking they are correct and fail to consider other alternatives.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. When it comes to working with groups, I think the idea of conforming to similarities within the group seems to be the easiest thing to do, especially in scenarios where time plays factor.
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